Speaking at the Church and Media Conference at the MediaCityUK complex in Salford, where parts of the BBC are now based, she offered him advice for the job, urging him to make sure the BBC was “confident but not arrogant.”

She said: “It’s quite easy for the BBC to get a bit above itself and forget about everyone else.”

She also praised Mr Entwistle, predicting he would be a “brilliant” director-general and describing him as someone with “absolutely the right sort of values.”

Ms Thomson became chief operating officer six years ago and was in charge of the move to Salford.

But Mr Entwistle’s first act in charge was to scrap the post of chief operating officer she occupied.